I haven't played in a long time.  I am trying to find a game I can play with my wife besides WOW, which I refuse to play.  Right now she likes RIFT but i am playing SWTOR.  We both played COH and liked it but that is no more.  We both played EQ2 as well and she enjoyed it.

I am looking at either LOTRO again or EQ2. I am more familiar with EQ2 due to the time I have subbed to it over the years (on and off) and I am looking forward to EQ Next....so it looks like I might make EQ2 our new home but......

What classes to play.  We both love pet classes, animal pets, not unded.  In Rift I was a Beastmaster and she was a Hunter (or ranger, whatever it was) and we were somewhat happy since we both has animal pets.  Unfortunately there was no way of getting new pet avatars and the Beastmaster soul was kinda weak which caused me to lose interest.

Now to my real question, does the Beastlord class allow you to have different pets and can you arm them like you could in EQ?  Also, is there any way possible to get a pet for a druid or ranger that has any effectiveness in EQ2 now?  My wife really loves her animal pets and depends on them (she loved her hunter in WOW).

you cannot arm pets like in EQ1

the EQ2 Beastlord pet comes in many forms and abilities - they also get their own AA tree

-- and you can collect them all :)

http://eq2wire.com/beastlord-warders/

the only EQ2 pet classes are:  Beastlord, Summoner, Enchanter, Shaman

Druids can AA spec in Agility to get access to a limited Charm that works on humanoids and beasts

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Charm_Creature